Full-Body Plyometric Exercises
To date I've been a Burpee man exclusively, but some digging turned up two other full-body plyometric exercises, bringing the list to:
Here's a quick Thunder Rolls vs. Burpees thread. I just tried a quick set of Thunder Rolls without a medicine ball (don't own one yet), and it does seem like you get quite a bit of help from momentum that you don't get with Burpees in the lower part of the exercise. Maybe I'll feel differently when I add a ball, but I could add a ball to Burpees as well.
I haven't tried the Mahler Body Blaster yet, as it's dark outside right now so I don't want to brave the wolves, and I can't do them in here as the exercise covers more horizontal space than my basement allows. I don't think I've figured it out though. Do you ever stand up again after the initial squat, or do you just keep going roll-pushup-roll-pushup-etc.? Also, after the pushup do you keep your feet in place and use your arms to return to the squat and then roll back, or do you jump your feet up to your hands and then roll back? If the latter, you could do Body Blasters for distance, as you'd move forward with each rep.
The prisoner's workout would be fun for any of these, I bet. I tried this yesterday for the first time, but I started at a paltry 10 burpees and laddered down from there. My walk was about a 10-second walk. Concentrated on form and speed, making sure I exploded on the jump, and then flowed into the next burpee immediately upon landing (i.e. rather than catch myself on the landing from the jump, I pretty much let gravity pull me right down into the squat, with minimal slowing and no hitches). 10 wasn't too bad, 9 was uncomfortable, 8 through 5 truly sucked, 4 showed the light at the end of the tunnel, while 3, 2, and 1 were a welcome home stretch. I really must get better at these.